The Chancellor of UK, George Osborne wants to see his country as a capital of Fintech.In his recent meeting with the chief executive officer of Apple, Ti Cook at the Bank of England Open Forum, he stated,“I was thinking how extraordinary it was, you had a finance minister and the head of a tech company talking about the future of banking. I want the U.K.
to the global center of fintech. We will go out our way to make it happen.”Osborne explains that the British regulators would provide “the space where innovation can happen”, and made an announcement that the U.K.
government was working with EY, a professional services firm in order to draw up a benchmark to see how London compares with the international rivals for fintech innovation.Osborne further stated that technology plays a very important role in future of banking and finance, mentioning mobile payments technologies such as Apple Pay as the “the shape of things to come.”Nicholas Cary, blockchain co- founder explained, “London has been the home of financial innovation for hundreds of years. It would be a historical mistake not to make this the home of digital currencies. There’s an incredible amount of talent and experience here.
”The public comments and ease of regulations has helped the UK in being with the go- to destination for Fintech investment.Last year, George Osborne at the Innovate Finance conference in London, where he was joined by the chief executive of companies such as Canary Wharf Group and Monitise, a digital money firm, he stated in his speech,“Key to the Government’s long term economic plan is cementing Britain’s position as the centre of global finance.It’s only by harnessing innovations in finance, alongside our existing world class knowledge and skills in financial services, that we’ll ensure Britain’s financial sector continues to meet the diverse needs of businesses and consumers, here and around the globe, and create the jobs and growth we all want to see in the future.”Osborne has appointed Eileen Burbidge, the venture capitalist of Passion Capital as the UK’s special envoy for fintech replacing Joana Shield, the chairwoman of Tech City UK.The U.
K. government has also pledged ?10 million towards research into distributed ledger technology, which also underpins bitcoin.Eric Van der Kleij, a British entrepreneur who leads the fintech accelerator company Level39 stated, “The comments from George Osborne was very welcome and when coupled with the government’s previous moves on regulatory innovation, such as the regulatory sandboxes and the FCA’s Project Innovate, they will go a long way towards helping the UK achieve a lead in the sector.”
